tommarker

I'm middle of the road on this subject. Breaking has its pros and cons. In terms of publicity and demos, breaking is excellent. I'm in favor of a little showmanship once in awhile. I also think it helps a person visualize what they are capable of, but after a certain point, there are diminishing returns. For example, I've seen plenty of very strong people who could pound through several concrete blocks with very little effort and no training. My father is one of those guys who is just really strong, has worked hard all of his life, and can just shut off pain to do what he needs to do. For him, training for breaking would be useless. I can take someone off the street and have them break a single 1" thick pine board with a hammerfist after about 30 seconds of instruction. It's more a mental hurdle than anything else. Most people can break one board with brute force. 2-3 might take a little technique refinement, especially if we change the technique. It still comes down to focus and mental confidence. Women, and smaller individuals, I think can stand to get more out of breaking, even if they are not naturally gifted. Where breaking becomes dangerous is children using their hands to break, overeager students choosing breaks beyond their ability, and poor choices of materials (concrete versus brick versus cement, etc) Also, "boards don't hit back" and all that fun stuff. Can you get the same physical benefits from heavy bags and hand targets? Sure you can. But I think there is a certain psychological appeal to breaking the occasional board that appeals to a lot of people. I'm not sure if I like breaking. I tend to either be able to demolish everything i try to break, or go for very long streaks of time not being able to make ANY breaks. Part of this is choosing difficult breaks, using bad wood, but a great part is psychological.. imho.

if by "traditional" you mean.. over the last 50-75 years... then yes, martial arts have been practiced in dogi/dobahk. Before then, jump into the wayback machine and see guys practicing basically in loinclothes or underclothing, or whatever else they happen to be wearing. Now in our school, yes we all wear white uniforms... but I fail to see how if we all practiced in sweats and tshirts one day that our technique will go downhill. In fact, I know plenty of highly talented people who have been doing this far longer than I who are most comfortable practicing technique in sweats and tshirts. Most of them have forgotten more than I've learned. I think you're talking about cheesy uniforms, and most "traditionalists" would indeed find them to be overdone. However, to imply they are the root of all evil in TKD, or any art for that matter, is attributing far too much blame to inanimate fabric.

you must not have any students if this is what you have to care about.

If NCAA athletes can do it, so can you! Of course, they get some special treatment, but if your club is a university sponsored org, you might be able to get legimate excused absences for attending tournaments, etc. I know OSU provides this. welcome to the board..

I hope I'm not sounding too vicious... just enough to make you think. My basic point is that you could do martial arts in a pink bunny suit and it wouldn't affect the heart and soul of what I'm doing. If you think it does... well, sometimes we hate in others what we hate most about ourselves. Maybe you're hung up on other people appearing egotistical.... because.. well, you fill in the blank

not to disparage a sponsor of this board, but I would be very wary. Part of the martial arts is working with others, developing timing, distance, etc. All of these things are hard to understand when only training alone. That's not to say it wouldn't work if you were just looking to get an excellent workout and have some stuff to play with.

people who come to class and pass their germs to me really aggravate me. Don't be that guy

I'm sorry, but there are more things wrong in the world of martial arts then whether or not people choose to have a few strips of WHITE TAPE on the end of their friggin belts! I have two stripes on my belt. My God, I had no idea that I was showing off so much! I think that if you REALLY believe that the only things that matter are technique, ability, teaching etc... then you guys wouldn't get in such a huff over 10 year old black belts, whether someone wears black pants instead of white pants, stripes, no stripes, calls themselves master, sahbum, etc.... ...if that was all that YOU really thought mattered, you would just go about your daily training and not have to look like friggin Lao Tze on karateforums.com telling the rest of us how morally superior you are in your training. Go whack a SparPro for a few hours... really.

get the heaviest bokken you can and get strong. do lots of suburi exercises. in fact, start with a steel pipe.

I just read that they do say their weapons are handmade.. so nevermind. But to be honest, I'm not sure how much better they could be than shureido brand

Those look a lot like Shureido Sai... I would check first. If they are Shureido, I think I know where you could get them a little cheaper.

No, I think people should continue to make assumptions based on what we've read on the internet

While TKD is probably the most popular with the masses, Columbus has had over the years an amazing amount of Chinese Martial Arts resources.

So... if we all made something up and told you that it meant something really cool in English, and the calligraphy said something completely different... ...you wouldn't know any better?

Do you think people get into this heated of disputes over whether they are practicing La Scherma or La Esgrima?

Anyways.. not wanting to contribute too much to thread drift. Did you instructor get his start in the MDK, i.e. trained under Hwang Kee? I'm not trying to knock the way you guys do things, it just seems odd that a school that aligns itself with Hee Il Cho, does ITF forms (and Bassai) would call itself Moo Duk Kwan unless there was a connection of sorts. I guess I'm saying that I'm nosy.

Or just take the other guy out... OLD SCHOOL!! nah... do what Doug says.

When people say that TKD is for softies, I point them to Jhoon Rhee and He Il Cho.

well, at least jerry agrees with me

Alan, Politics are funny sometimes. Maybe this guy views you as some threat for some reason. Perhaps you should take it up directly with him If they told you when you walked in the school that you'd have to start at white belt until you were evaluated, that's one thing. But to allow your rank, and then call it into question seems funny to me, as if *someone* out there is trying to pull some sort of control on you. Someone is trying to hide behind technicalities to bring you down. Is your teacher backing you up? Since he let you in with the belt, it almost seems like he has to just to save face. DM makes a good point about rank not mattering, and to some point he's right. But at the same time, you earned it fairly, albeit a long time ago, and you can still perform to the level that you were tested for. That's a lot better than some people I see walking around with a ratty old black belt IMHO, this isn't about the rank with you.. the rank is just a visual representation of what is at stake.

Ok. It apparently bothers him that you are wearing a black belt in his school but can't be held responsible for current material. I guess I can see his beef to some degree. But unless your name is on the wall as "Assistant Instructor" I don't see it as a big deal. Are you willing to learn the bo? Don't you need Kusanku no sai also? Maybe a good compromise would be brown belt until you know everything. I think the people in the club all respect your ablity and understand that is what you're missing. Like you've said, you've got the moves, so I don't think people would think you were a fraud. And if they do... whoop em

yeah... that is a little odd But the MDK way would be to keep your height level and generate a great deal of your power from hip rotation and thrust from your back leg.

if you still got the moves, i would think he should be inclined to believe your story. if you don't know sanchin from naihanchi, and claiming shodan, that's another ball of wax... which you clearly aren't. i'd be tempted to ask him if he believes you. if he does, what's the problem? if he doesn't, then you can either leave or offer to test and have your "true" rank evaluated.

I just always assumed there were a lot of Karateka who liked Buckeye Football.. Ohio State University = OSU

obviously no one like to get hit in the bait and tackle, but it happens... move on and buy your friend a beer/soda/icepack.